Pine Gap ‘THE POISONED HEART OF AUSTRALIA’

Trump as President. Read on…On Peace protests and IPAN Conference 2016 by Chris White October 11
With the revanchist Trump, and Obama and Clinton daily fanning war drums against Russia and China, and continuous US drone assassinations, Australia has to move to an independent and peaceful foreign and defence policy.
See the IPAN resolutions below and my arguments focus on :Close Pine Gap and give notice of closure of all US joint-facilities. OK the US moves our bases. The aim is a limiting of US first strike capacity; a limit on US drone assassinations (see below); a limit on space warfare with the closure of the most frightening of all the bases, North West Cape that is at the cutting edge of warfare — in space; and all this will boost nuclear disarmament.

“Professor Tanter warns Australia could become enmeshed in anti-satellite warfare. If there was a war between US and China over the South China Sea and US could not bring a fleet near the coast any more, “the first thing they want to do is blind other side’s satellites”.
We are providing the US with extra capacity to make that happen, says Prof Tanter.
“Do we really want to be implicated in that?”
More from Richard Tanter 2017http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=9041

Deeper integration with US operations in the Middle East is matched by closer involvement in the Western Pacific than at any time since pulling out of Vietnam, White told me. In the past five years we have planned for conflict in Korea, assigned an Australian general as deputy commander of US land forces in the Pacific, attached a frigate to US naval forces in Japan during a flare-up in the Senkaku islands dispute, and hosted a US marine task force in Darwin.
“These are terribly significant strategic steps that have been taken with very little strategic analysis, certainly with no public discussion, but I strongly suspect with very little serious analysis within government either,” White said. “We’re sliding into situations where we are sending to the United States through these activities a message that we are willing to support them in military operations in Asia against China, and I don’t think we are.“My worry is not that we’ll end up accidentally finding ourselves sliding into a commitment to go to war with China.

c. Here is a good report from CPA M-L http://www.cpaml.org/posting1.php?id=372
A brief presentation was made on behalf of IPAN’s national co-ordinating committee outlining a broad vision for an Independent and Peaceful Australia:(Extracts )
“We believe a people’s vision for an independent and peaceful Australia is the only viable and practical alternative to the present subservience and integration into US militarism.
“What would an independent and peaceful Australian foreign policy look like? We hope some of these points will inspire positive and unifying discussion and broadening the campaign for peace and independence.
1. Treaty with Australia’s First Nation People

2. Establish independent working relationships with countries, especially in our region, based on mutual respect, equality and national sovereignty.

Promote peaceful resolutions of conflict between countries through negotiations and diplomacy, see IPAN’s Statement on the South China Sea Territorial Dispute.

3. Extend aid programs in the region, including countries affected by devastations of climate change and military conflicts.

4. Assert our independence and sovreignty in our relationship with the US, and any other big power. The US is presently the most aggressive war-driven armed to the teeth power in the world and the main instigator of wars around the world.

5. Ensure the military and economic interests of big powers and multinational corporations do not override the welfare, safety and security of the Australian people and the environment;

6. Bring home Australian military forces from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and other parts of the world immediately (eg Philippines, Japan);

7. Remove foreign military bases and troops from Australia and withdraw from the US-Australia Alliance to secure genuine and lasting independence from big power dominance and our involvement in foreign wars;

8. Internationally, vigorously promote the banning and destruction of all nuclear weapons and stop the arms race;

9. The savings made from current expenditure on foreign wars and interoperability with the US global war machine will be re-directed to social and community services – more hospitals, doctors, nurses, teachers, schools, support for struggling farmers, people on disability, single parents and unemployment pensions, protection for the environment, and more;

10. Develop Australia’s self-reliant, self-defence industries and assert our independence from the US military apparatus. End military interoperability and integration into the US war machine. The technology presently used for offensive and aggressive warfare should be re-directed towards Australia’s self-defence and improving and securing people’s lives and the environment. Re-tooled, re-engineered and re-designed local manufacturing industries will provide jobs for workers in industries that build security and peace, not the profits of war.

13. Close all refugee detention camps and implement efficient and speedy processing of asylum seekers;

IPAN

14. Internationally, campaign to end wars and poverty and uphold self-determination and sovreignty of countries;

15. An independent foreign policy of Australia would embrace economic sovereignty, and fair and equal policies and trade between countries rather than the neo-liberal corporate policies”;

Each session was followed by brief questions to the panel members before the conference broke up into four workshops to pinpoint suggested actions and demands for the year ahead. The workshops considered four key areas;
• Nuclear weapons and Australia
• Foreign troops off Australian land – Close US bases
• Armed Neutrality – strategy for independence and peace?
• Building a broad movement for peace, justice and independence
At least a dozen or more suggestions were put forward from the workshops and these will be prioritised by the IPAN National Committee and circulated to the various affiliates for comment.

d. Ian Curr’s good story on ‘Pine Gap 50 Years War’ telling of 3 peace protesters lamenting war at Pine Gap arrested but with the magistrate dismissing charges on a process point – did not get Senator Brandis AG authorization and we wait for this.

Margaret Pestorius with her viola. Image: Adam Ginger. Longtime Catholic, social worker and peace advocate Margaret Pestorius says ‘I am taking my viola to Pine Gap to play a song of lament for the dead of war. The viola is the perfect instrument for lamentation because it sings in the range of the human voice. I’ll play a lament with a young musician, guitarist Franz Dowling, who holds hope for the future.’
Please note that the dismissal of the charges is likely to be appealed in the Supreme Court in Darwin. Further support can be offered at https://www.gofundme.com/closepg
Money donated at this point will go to the Pilgrims for legal costs.Please join peace actionshttp://peace-waca.nationbuilder.com
e. An Alice Springs News report of one interesting IPAN Conference speech on Pine Gap Peace protests by lawyer RUSSELL GOLDFLAM. It is good that the politics of defending peace protesters is discussed, as here in “The Pine Gap 4 won a spectacular but incomplete legal victory”.

Read here “ What have we learnt from past campaigns? Well, the biggest lesson, the hardest lesson, the elephant in the room really, is that we are now much further from closing Pine Gap than we were, or at least we thought we were, 30 years ago. Pine Gap is more entrenched, more embedded, more entangled, more powerful than ever. Our campaigns, colourful, imaginative, bold and passionate though they have been, have not yet succeeded. They have not galvanised public opinion, like the Save the Franklin campaign did in 1983, or like the asylum seekers and refugee support campaigns are doing now.

A second lesson is that the strength of the Australian anti-bases movement rises and falls on the fickle and capricious currents of global events: in 1988, the movement was riding high: 700 people had flocked to Alice Springs for the protests the previous year. Back then the Alice Springs Peace Group regularly attracted a crowd of 300 or 400 locals to a demo. Palm Sunday peace rallies in the big cities drew tens, even hundreds of thousands. A year later, the movement had virtually collapsed, along with the Berlin Wall and the fizzling out of the Cold War. Problem solved, many progressive Australians believed. Let’s move on.
The first Gulf War saw a mild revival, but then, in the aftermath of September 11, a flurry of radical anti-terrorism legislation was passed, the authorities sent us all fridge magnets with the alert but not alarmed number to call, and the peace movement was again pushed to the edges.

During the mass protests in the ’80s when there were over a hundred of us at a time on the wrong side of the fence, we must have posed a real threat to the security of the base, but we were all only ever charged with the minor offence of trespass. Things changed after September 11 2001.

In 2005, Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie, Bryan Law and Donna Mulhearn, with their conspicuous white overalls, conducted their ‘Citizens Inspection’ of Pine Gap. Although they didn’t pose a threat to the security of the base, they got charged with far more serious offences, the very first time the Defence (Special Undertakings ) Act had been used in the 53 years since its enactment to thwart any spies who might be lurking near the Monte Bello Islands, where the Brits were conducting top-secret nuclear tests at the time.

So the peace movement ebbs and flows. Which brings us to a third lesson: keep a weather eye out for those global currents and tides, and trim your sails accordingly. Be opportunistic and catch any lucky puffs of wind you encounter. But also, be strategic: be alert to the deeper shifting patterns.”

h. International solidarity with peace activists from Guam and Okinawa at the IPAN conference and Pine Gap:
“Professor Kosuzu Abe, who addressed both the public forum in Alice Springs and the Conference, knows all too well the consequences of a nuclear war affecting the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the ongoing military presence in Japan.

“Military power is not the best provider of security for ordinary people. This is what the people of Okinawa have learned through the battle for their island. The installation of foreign military facilities on Okinawa has gone way too far. It is simply a form of colonisation and, as such, is unacceptable.” said Professor Abe.

“The US Military’s recent policy of the ‘Asia-Pacific Pivot’ does not ensure security at all. All it does is provide justification for the ‘other side’, in this case China, to increase its military readiness and intensify the conflict.” she said.

Professor Kosuzu Abe from the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa, told the forum about the many years of struggle and resistance of the people of Okinawa against the US military occupation of Japan’s southern island. This struggle had forced the US government to reduce the number of its troops stationed in Okinawa, with some transferred to Guam and others being shifted to new bases in the north of the island. Several organisations were active in opposing US war preparations and were cooperating for large mobilisations. As with Guam, the people of Okinawa were paying a high price for the US occupation, with stolen land and crimes of violence and abuse never brought to justice.

Professor Lisa Natividad from the University of Guam spoke of the continuing struggle of her people against the US military occupation of their island. More than 30% of the land area is taken over for US military storage and training purposes, with constant aircraft and helicopter movements day and night. Guam is a US colonial possession, but its citizens have limited voting and civil rights, and lesser government services than other holders of a US passport.
To make way for the recent transfer of troops from Okinawa onto Guam, more areas became restricted, denying people access to their lands, and whole villages were disrupted. This was in addition to the ‘normal’ level of harassment and abuse of continued US military occupation.

In spite of this, the people of Guam are not intimidated and are an important voice in the growth and development of anti-war and anti-imperialist unity in the Asia-Pacific region.

IPAN

Dr Lisa Natividad: “We in Guam are opposing the militarisation and colonisation of our region. The U.S. military empire continues to stretch its tentacles across the globe to destroy our aboriginal sacred places. Pine Gap plays a significant role as a US surveillance base with drones for air strikes and a missile defence system functioning to militarize the world,” she said.

Learn about Guam. Here a news report America has since expanded its military presence in Guam, which is seen as key to protecting the superpower’s interests in Asia-Pacific.

The island is a vital part of the US “Pivot” to the region, forming a strategic triangle in conjunction with bases in Japan, Australia and Hawaii.
It’s known as “the tip of the spear” because of its proximity to potential conflict hot spots in Asia, including North Korea and the South China Sea. It has also been dubbed “America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier” and “Fortress Pacific”.

Guam’s picturesque north is home to the less picturesque Andersen Airforce Base. In the south is a naval base.

2. Sanctioned Murder: Australia’s Role In Drone Strikes On Innocent Civilians Is Growing
By Michael Brull on October 8, 2016
“The Australian government takes part in the murder of people overseas. They help to murder people who are not engaged in hostilities, in countries we are not at war with, who have not been convicted of a crime.

Even worse, our leaders intend to expand our involvement, so that Australia takes part in its own extra-judicial executions.
We are presently involved in extra-judicial executions through Pine Gap. As reported at the ABC, the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap is “jointly run by the Australian and United States governments”.

According to Professor Richard Tanter, it contributes targeting data to American drone operations, including assassinations. American drone operations are known to take place in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, and presumably also in Iraq, Syria and Libya.”

“According to the chief of our defence force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, we hope to bomb those who aren’t “taking a direct and active part in hostilities”. Turnbull intends for the new laws, supported in principle by the ALP, to see us “joining with our coalition partners to target and kill a broader range of Daesh combatants – which is consistent with international law”.
That is, we can kill that strange breed of “combatant” who isn’t actually involved in combat.”
Read more herehttps://newmatilda.com/2016/10/08/sanctioned-murder-australias-role-in-drone-strikes-on-innocent-civilians-is-growing/

Alternative News – 23/10//2016 part two of an interview with the NSW Green Senator Lee Rhiannon at the IPAN Conference held in Alice Springs on 1 October 2016. You will also hear an interview Romina Beitseen had with Pat Ansell Dodds a native title holder of Alice Springs.http://www.3cr.org.au/alternativenews

2. My story at Pine Gap is somewhat muted as I was recovering from shingles on my right head, fore-head. I did not travel on the Bus from Melbourne www.closepinegap.org and my dear Kathryn paid for me to travel and stay. I did not camp in the Peace camps outside of Pine Gap but stayed in Alice Springs. I was well enough on two occaisons on Friday and Sunday to go to the Pine Gap gates and listen and participate and I have posted photos.Here is the letter we delivered to the CIA:
Call on Pine Gap to cease involvement in the deadly US drone assassination program and for the facility to be terminated as soon as possible. Following a well attended and successful anti-war conference held at Alice Springs on 1st October, 2016 the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) organised a peaceful protest involving a cavalcade of cars to the gates of the Joint Defence Facility –Pine Gap on Sunday 2nd October.
At the gates of the Joint Defence Facility-Pine Gap, the following letter was presented to a senior police officer for relay to the Chief of Station, Ms Amy Chaput. Previously, a request by letter to the Chief of the Station (an American) and to the Deputy Chief of the Station, (an Australian), to meet at an IPAN delegation at the gate for presentation of the letter, had been ignored. The protesters were met at the gate and heavily fenced entrance to Pine Gap, by 30 uniformed police plus two police on horses. The protesters had already been “frisked” by police some hundred metres down the road from the entrance.
In the absence of being able to meet an official for the Pine Gap facility, an IPAN representative and a representative of the local indigenous community, jointly presented the following letter to a senior policeman at the gate for relaying to the Pine Gap station.

TO THE CHIEF OF STATION JOINT DEFENCE FACILITY-PINE GAP
Ms Amy Chaput,
Following the well-attended and successful conference organised by the Independent and Peaceful Australian Network (IPAN) at Alice Springs this weekend, it was determined that:

1. The Pine Gap facility is a threat to the peace and security of the people of Australia and Alice Springs, in particular

2. The illegal drone assassination program perpetrated by the United States with the assistance of Pine Gap makes the Australian people complicit in this illegal activity

For these reasons, IPAN, on behalf of all concerned people of Australia, calls for the immediate cessation of this illegal drone program and the termination of the Pine Gap facilities as soon as possible.
Australia will then be a safer place for all of us.
Yours in peace, IPAN Co-ordinating Committee
PO Box 573, Coorparoo, Qld, 4151 For further details:Annette Brownlie: 0431 597 256 Nick Deane: 0420 526 929
After the IPAN conference, on the fine Saturday evening, we walked to the War Memorial at the top of the hill and here a wonderful lamentation against all wars, lead by the legendary Peace Bus protester Graeme Dunstan.
After carrying the banners down, we walked to the bank of the dry River Todd, and we all ate heartily very good food by cook Eli.

Please scroll through this PeaceBus website http://peacebus.com
I was able to meet old friends in this post and meet new Peace activists. I was most pleased at a packed room of 200 for the Public IPAN meeting and for very good presentations at the IPAN Conference and workshops – never enough time!.

Here I add from PeaceBus Graeme Dustan his reflections and thanks to the organisers.
“I have been rolling down the desert highways with my mind also rolling, rolling with reflections on the Alice Springs Peace Convergence, acknowledging how well we did well.
How in this time of secret government, lies and endless war, we stood truly together and showed courage in the face of tyranny, initiative and determination too, and we got noticed and came away a stronger peace movement because of it.
No central committee. Lots of coordinated independent actions. No centralised media. Lots of independent social media.
Most astonishing was the success of police liaison. A big success summed up by the observation that the cops were not afraid of us, nor were we of them.
Hear my gratitude to both the AFP and the NT Police for taking pride in protecting our right to protest.
So much gratitude to be said.
First up gratitude to Arrernte activist elder and recent Greens candidate, Vince Forrester, for welcoming us to his country with story telling and blessings and for standing among us.
Likewise gratitude to Chris Tomlins who stood tall and made the original call on behalf of the Arrernte for help to rid their land of the murder making at Pine Gap.
For this Chris was accused of breaching Arrernte protocol and acting without authority. But his warrior spirit proved strong. He endured the bad mouthing and he stood with us at the Pine Gap gate, more widely respected for his clear voice of dissent by Arrernte young and old.
Hear my gratitude for the Quaker Grannies – Helen Bayes, Dawn Joyce, Peri Coleman and Jo Valentine – for bearing witness for peace with such faith, grace and artfulness.

Hear my gratitude to Margie Pestorius and her team of Peace Pilgrims, who at the risk of jail and with great faith and determination, valiantly penetrated the Pine Gap security perimeter so that they might lament the war making at Pine Gap and pray for peace within sight of those murderous radomes.

Hear my gratitude to Jacob Grech and Eli, two protest camp elders, for giving the Disarm Camp grounded leadership and no-fuss amenity. From there came blockades and lock-ons galore, smart actions and smart media too.
Thanks to Annette Brownlie and the IPAN folk who laboured long to produce the IPAN conference and forum. It proved to be a peak peace movement event – it got information about the evil role of Pine Gap updated and spread far and wide.
Thanks to Jason Freddi and the assembled tribe at the Tribal Healing and Unity Camp on the Claypans. What magic camp fire nights and days we shared there.
Thanks to all the folk whom Bec and i met while preparing the way in Alice Springs for the Peace Convergence in the weeks before.
These include David and Sue Woods at Campfire of the Heart, Jason Quinn at the Sandbox, Jonathan Pillbrow, Alice’s peace organiser extraordinaire, and also the Council staff and the NT Police i dealt with negotiating the Lamentation on Anzac Hill and other events.
What a beautiful and deeply moving ceremony of lamentation for the sorrows of war was created there.
Blessings of the ancestors were surely upon us that night. Auspiciousness too.
Without the ancestors how could we have imagined that occupying war memorials with lamentations might become a path to peace.
For so many of the young people who participated, the Alice Springs Peace Convergence, what a life changing event it must have been. Regeneration.
May it be so.
May there be many more peace convergences and protest camps of such cohesion and bonding.
Avalon in February? Peacebus will be there.
Salute to the Big Spirit moving us!

Shirley Winton’s presentation of past union actions for peace.
“To various degrees unions have always campaigned against Australia’s involvement in imperialist wars. This is because it’s the ordinary people, workers and working people who are the cannon fodder in the imperial profiteers’ wars to capture resources and global spheres of dominance. It’s the ordinary people who in tens of thousands die or are left injured, homeless, living in poverty and hunger in devastated countries.

They are the so-called collateral damage, the new sanitized description of mass slaughter. And as we meet here today we are reminded of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the growing tensions in Asia-Pacific and East Europe.
“Unions also oppose wars because it’s the working people who pay a high price for these wars with peoples’ taxes diverted from social and community services, welfare, health and education and building a peaceful and sustainable world.

“Australia was colonised in 1788 by the British imperial invasion which violently dispossessed Australia’s First Nations people who have been the custodians and carers of this land for more than 40,000 years. The Indigenous people never relinquished their custody of this land and culture and their struggle continues today.

“The colonial authority enforced Britain’s own foreign and domestic policies on its new colony, Australia. The legacy of that colonial past continues today. The difference being the British have been replaced by the US, and the control over our foreign and defence policies is more subtle. The vestiges of this long dependency are still with us today in the form of the US-Australia alliance. The British flag has been replaced by the American flag.
“Australia’s national defence and foreign policies have echoed and unquestioningly supported these imperial powers’ global military interests and their wars. Successive Australian governments’ foreign and defence policies have been an extension of first the British and now US policies. We fought, and continue to fight, against countries that pose no threat to Australia’s security, peace and safety, and with whom Australia had never been in conflict or dispute – the British war in Sudan, the Boer War 1895, 1st WW, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. Only in WW2 did Australian military forces serve the Australian people.

Picasso Peace dove

“Since European colonisation, significant parts of Australia’s defence budget and public spending have been exclusively servicing British and US global military agendas and their foreign wars.

Today, the Australian government purchases most of the weaponry designed for offensive warfare from multinational arms manufacturers who stand to profit enormously from a world that’s in a perpetual state of conflict, mass slaughter, and preparations for more wars.

“Much of the recently acquired weaponry, hardware and arms procurement is from the US multinational arms manufacturers – Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Boeing, General Electric, etc. Australia is purchasing from the US, 75 F35 joint strike fighters war planes at a cost of $10 billion; and 12 Barracuda submarines from France (member of NATO), at a cost of $50 billion. This hardware is specifically designed and built for long range warfare, and is an important part of interoperability with US offensive military machine, not for the defence of Australia’s sovereignty. This is another price we pay for being in the US-Australia alliance.

“Instead of spending ordinary people’s taxes on services for the people – health, education, public infrastructure, welfare and community services, pensions for single parents, people with disabilities, the elderly, the unemployed, and protecting the environment – public funds are spent on servicing US foreign wars of aggression and the multinational arms manufacturers. This should be of great concern to unions and working people generally.
“The US Pivot into Asia-Pacific publicly announced by Obama in the Australian parliament will see 60% of US global military moved into our region. And who will carry the costs for the Pivot?

“After Obama and Clinton publicly announced the Pivot, to the loud applause and acclamation by the 2 main parliamentary parties, the US told the Australian government it wanted Australia to spend $2.3 billion on upgrading and building military infrastructure for stationing US marines in Darwin.

“Another cost of US-Australia alliance and its even deeper integration and inoperability into US military is the destruction of Australia’s “defence” manufacturing industries.

Australia’s “defence” industries are now being increasingly forced to import more expensive offensive hardware from mainly US multinational arms corporations. This imported weaponry is designed for offensive aggression and of which Australia has no need for the defence of our sovereignty, but is increasing the “defence” budget and destroying hundreds of jobs and livelihood for hundreds of workers in Australia.

“Over the past 10-15 years tens of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing industries have been lost as corporations shift production to low wage countries. Jobs and permanent work is the only livelihood and security the great majority working people have. In contrast, a government run and an independent self-defence manufacturing industry that builds military hardware for Australia’s self-defence is a viable and plausible alternative that can provide security for workers and Australia’s self-defence capabilities.
“A genuinely independent and peaceful Australia would develop government-run local manufacturing industries that would include the production of self-defence equipment, and build socially useful infrastructure to advance the needs of the people and the environment – extensive public transport, medical, scientific and educational research and development. These industries would provide socially useful jobs for workers in clean, sustainable industries that build security and peace, not wars. To support local manufacturing industries and jobs a policy of local procurement in self-defence industries should be implemented. This would entail using local materials and building locally manufactured patrol boats and planes, submarines and ships for local sea lanes and coastal defence, locally made uniforms and equipment.
“The US Pivot into Asia-Pacific also has an economic side called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement which advances the interests of global corporations over the interests of people and national sovereignty. The TPP has been strongly opposed by the union movement.

“There are many other costs of the US-Australia alliance to Australia’s working people and our national interest. Just to mention a few:
– Political sovereignty and independence – 1975, Pine Gap and Whitlam government
– Australia’s complicity in US murderous wars, drones, assassinations
– The war on terror and erosion of civil liberties and democratic rights”

A major group in IPAN and at the Conference and protesting are doctors against war. Please follow on the Medical Association for the Prevention of War . The Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) works for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and the prevention of armed conflict. We promote peace through research, advocacy, peace education and partnerships. Please use our many resources on nuclear weapons, power and waste, peace and conflicts. https://www.mapw.org.au

When having to say that Australia’s war-mongering with the US is as dangerous now as ever: one read is A Dangerous Diplomatic proposal:

As Middle East expert Patrick Cockburn points out, “The U.S. remains a superpower, but is no longer as powerful as it once was.” While it can overthrow regimes it doesn’t like, “It can’t replace what has been destroyed.”

Up there Australia
Stand up and fight
For our independence
From USA might
Out with their bases
No more of their wars
Peace with all nations
When we’re out of their claws

Up there Australia
In there and fight
For our independence
From USA might
A mixture of cultures
Let’s walk hand in hand
Respecting the people
Who first walked this land

Up there Australia
In there and fight
For our independence
From USA might
Peace for the future
That’s what we believe
And sharing our country
With all those in need
THAT’S WHAT WE BELIEVE!!!
From ‪David Perkins A 1973 protest song from “The Balls of Bob Menzies” WE DON’T WANT NO YANKEE BASES‬‬‬‬‬‬